01 Sep 2023 at 13:10
German justice wants to prosecute a 98-year-old man for complicity in the murder of more than 3,300 people in Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II. It is not yet certain whether he will have to appear in court.
That is what the juvenile court is about. It determines whether the German must appear in court, because he was still young when he started working as a guard.
According to the German OM, the man “cooperated in the cruel and depraved murder of thousands of prisoners”. The crimes are said to have been committed between July 1943 and February 1945.
In October last year, a psychiatric examination was carried out on the 98-year-old man. That examination showed that he is healthy enough to appear in court.
Former camp guards are not always convicted
Germany has increasingly prosecuted former SS camp guards since the conviction of John Demjanjuk in 2011.
Due to the advanced age of the suspects, this does not always result in a conviction or imprisonment. For example, a case is sometimes dropped if the health of the suspect is too bad. It also happens that a suspect dies during the trial.
The oldest suspect so far was Josef Schütz. He was sentenced last year at the age of 101 to five years in prison for his role in the murder of at least 3,500 prisoners in Sachsenhausen. He appealed, but died in April at the age of 102, before the case was concluded.
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GermanyWorld War IIAbroad
2023-09-01 11:10:25
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